There’s No Cheating in Cooking!
The Quickfire Challenge was to make an amuse-bouche – from ingredients taken from the vending machine! I will admit this is an odd concept, but everyone else was able to do well, except Michael. What is up with him? I want to like him because he seems like a normal guy – not snooty like Marcel – but he is starting to be so lazy and careless, even the judges are noticing! Poor Mia made a dessert – a no-no for amuse-bouche (who knew?). Frank, Carlos, and Ilan were the best with Carlos being announced as the winner and therefore receiving immunity.
The Elimination Challenge was to cook a full meal for kids at Camp Glucose. Each meal could contain no more than 500 calories. Nutritionists were there the first day of cooking to measure everything added to the recipe. This threw most of the chefs for a loop with the possible exception of Sam as he is diabetic and used to counting calories. The chefs were divided up into four teams, with Betty and Marcel both on the Black team. Marcel wanted to make something stupid for the kids, but Betty pointed out how kids loved pizza, so they went with that. The Red team cooked chicken skewers (which the judges said was bland), the Orange team cooked turkey meatballs (referred to as rocks by a judge), and the White team cooked chicken parmesan (which was acceptable).
Of course, most of the children choose to eat the pizza while only 5 chose the chicken skewers. The Red team made coleslaw with their chicken – what kids eat coleslaw? Even with raisins in it, the judges said it was weak. The favorite dishes were the pizza and the berry cheesecake.
The judges called the Black team in to declare them the winners and asked to see the Red and Orange teams. Sam had mentioned seeing a lot of olive oil used the second day. Just one teaspoon of olive oil contains 120 calories, so he was concerned. But, he refused to name names. However, Mia had no problem. She brought up the fact that after the Black team’s cookies failed the first day, Betty used sugar rather than Splenda the second day. Tom confronted all the chefs and Betty admitted to using a little sugar, but pointed out that they were at 440 calories the first day, so she was sure they were still under 500.
With no proof of who used what the second day, Tom told the chefs no one would be leaving, but they were all on probation and will be watched closely to make sure they are following the rules.
[tags]top chef, television, bravo, tv, reality, food, topchef, reality tv, top-chef, cooking, chef[/tags]
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September 5th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
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